Virginia Making Strides With Restrictive Housing In State Prisons

The state of Virginia is greatly reducing the use of restrictive housing, commonly known as segregation in its state prison system. The median length of stay in short term restrictive housing in Virginia prisons is now 14 days, with more than a quarter of offenders released from short term restrictive housing within five days. There are now fewer than 50 offenders in long term restrictive housing in a system of about 30 thousand offenders. The Administrative Segregation Step Down program now gives high risk offenders the opportunity to work their way out of restrictive housing and back into the general prison population. For the third year in a row, Virginia’s recidivism rate is the lowest in the the country.